Montrealers divided over potential pit bull ban, poll suggests

Support for Montreal’s pit-bull ban has weakened significantly, a Forum Research poll for the Montreal Gazette shows.

The city is now divided over the question, according to a survey of 808 people over the weekend of Oct. 15-16. In it, 49 per cent of respondents say they approve of Montreal’s ban on pit-bull type dogs, while 44 per cent are against it, with six per cent saying they have no opinion on the issue.

That is a marked drop in support for the idea of banning pit bulls compared to a CROP-La Presse survey taken in June, two weeks after 55-year-old Christiane Vadnais was fatally mauled by a neighbour’s dog in her backyard in Pointe-aux-Trembles.

At the time, that poll found 70 per cent of respondents in the Montreal region favoured a ban.

June’s higher approval numbers are likely directly related to how soon after the Vadnais tragedy the questions were asked and how fresh in people’s memory the incident was, said Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research.

“We know people way overestimate the probability of something happening the more vivid the event is,” Bozinoff said. “Something like a pit-bull attack is a very vivid event.”

Now, four months later, he attributes the split between approval and disapproval to the fact that the question of a ban leaves no grey area.

“It’s hard to find common ground on an issue like this,” he said. “There is no real compromise. Either there is a ban or there isn’t a ban. I think that’s why you see so many people divided on this.”

Also striking is the large disparity that has emerged between the anglophone and francophone response: Only 36 per cent of polled anglophones favour the ban, while 50 per cent of francophones are in favour. Those who classified their mother tongue as neither English nor French are 64 per cent in favour of the ban.

“That’s a big difference (in polling results). It’s startling, really,” Bozinoff said. “If I had to guess, I would say there are more dog owners among English than the French.” Either that or English owners are more likely to have pit-bull type dogs, he said.

Older residents, parents of children, the wealthy and the more highly educated are also more likely to favour the ban, while those younger than 34 are much more likely to disapprove of it.

Those surveyed are also nearly evenly split in their opinion of whether or not Mayor Denis Coderre has done a good job handling the issue, although a slight majority (30 per cent) said they would be less likely to vote for him as a result of it, as compared to 25 per cent of respondents who said they are more likely to support him. The poll also shows overall approval of Coderre remains high among Montrealers.

The new city bylaw banning the purchase or adoption of pit-bull type dogs on Montreal’s territory and strict regulations for current owners began on Oct. 3. It was suspended hours after it came into effect when a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled the law was too vague in its definition of what constitutes a “pit-bull type dog” and causes undue prejudice to non-dangerous dogs and their owners.

The city of Montreal challenged that ruling in the Quebec Court of Appeal on Friday. A decision is expected shortly.

The poll found a wide disparity in opinions among younger and older respondents, with only 27 per cent of those in the 18-34-year-old category approving the ban, while among those 35 and older, approval rates hovered around 58 per cent. Bozinoff said that was maybe because members of the older generation are more likely to have seen coverage of pit bull attacks in the past.

“When there is a pit-bull incident, it’s fairly high profile – they don’t happen that often but they are very high profile,” he said. “Younger people, I don’t think, have been exposed to that, so they’re less happy with the ban. Older people through their lifetime will remember other high-profile incidents in the past.”

Asked whether their view of the ban has changed from three months ago, opinion was evenly mixed, with just over a third of respondents saying they are more likely to support a ban now, another third saying they are less likely, and the remaining saying they have not changed their view.

The Forum Research telephone survey polled 808 randomly selected Montrealers aged 18 and older. Respondents lived in one of the 19 boroughs of the city of Montreal. None was from the island’s demerged municipalities. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate within three percentage points 19 times out of 20.